


d a r k s i d e

by Tianallalla



Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 20:32:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17835689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tianallalla/pseuds/Tianallalla
Summary: Years after the death of Jason Todd, and Starfire's decision to leave Bludhaven, Richard Grayson and Kori’s sister are finally adjusted to the changes that left them both in shambles until they discover Jason's body is not only missing from his grave, but he's alive and plotting revenge on his murderer and those who did not avenge him, including Richard and Kaliand'r.





	1. Darkside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this is a little confusing but there will be backstory that unfolds throughout the story so if there's any questions they will probably be covered in the story eventually but in case they aren't, feel free to ask if you need to. Thank you for reading!

**I | Darkside**

_Believe it, I see it_  
_I know that you can feel it_  
_No Secrets worth keeping_  
_So fool me like I'm dreaming_  
_Take me through the night_  
_Fall into the dark side_  
_We don't need the light_  
_We'll live on the dark side_  
_I see it, let's feel it_  
_While we're still young and fearless_  
_Let go of the light_  
_Fall into the dark side_  
_- **Darkside** by Alan Walker featuring Tomine Harket and Au/Ra_

* * *

 

The bustling night life of Bludhaven rings through the walls of Richard Grayson's apartment as the woman in his bed stares at the ceiling, unable to sleep in the slightest without him present. Her hand raises to run through her icey-blue hair, and she throws the covers off of the mattress and steps to the kitchen to take a couple of shots to see if that would help her find her rest.

The silence in the apartment itself is nearly ear-shattering as the only noise made is coming from her light steps to the cabinets.

She grabs a bottle of whiskey, but decides against getting a glass, instead drinking straight from the bottle. Her smooth lips curl over her teeth bitterly at the burning sensation in her throat from the heavy amount of alcohol, but that doesn't stop her from taking another swig of the amber liquid.

"Am I gonna have to put another padlock on the liquor cabinet again?" Richard's voice carries from the doorway of his bedroom as he eyes her. He notices how her long, wavy hair falls down her back, giving stark contrast in comparison to her golden skin. She just ignores him, taking another swallow which causes him to walk to her, plucking the bottle from her hands so he can put it up.

He's still in his Nightwing suit, the form-fitting fabric not leaving much to imagine. Any other woman would be fawning over him, looking for any excuse to get him in to bed, but even though she appreciates his beauty she can't bring herself to imagine him that way.

"Sorry," She mumbles as he puts the lid back on the whiskey and puts it back under the cabinet.

"Why aren't you asleep? Don't you have work tomorrow?" He asks, looking down at her and she rolls her pale-blue eyes.

"I'll be up in time." She argues.

"That's what you said last time and you were late." He points out.

"Don't you have work in the morning, detective?" She questions, pushing past him to get back to the bed.

"The difference in you and I when it comes to work, I can stay up all night and still be at work on time. You, however, will probably be late to your own funeral." He smarts off, following her in to his room. She crawls to her side of the bed, getting herself under the covers as he grabs a t-shirt and flannel pajama pants from one of his drawers.

"I'm not dead." She argues.

"Yeah, well, keep staying up all night and being late for work and I'll kill you, eventually." He promises her. "Eyes."

She covers her eyes as he changes from his suit, and doesn't open them until she hears him putting his suit away in the lock box under his bed.

"You would never kill me." She states as he gets in to the full sized bed, getting comfortable. "You can barely hit me when we're sparring. I'm a soft spot of your's you just won't admit it."

He turns on his side to look at her, the light from the city and the full moon casting a small amount of light throughout the room. She's on her back with her eyes closed, but she can feel him looking at her. Her hand comes up to push his face away gently.

"Go to sleep." She tells him, not bothering to open her eyes. He smirks to himself, rolling on to his back, resting his arm behind his head and closing his eyes.

A long moment of silence settles between them, and he sighs.

"You are a soft spot." He admits. "But one of those gross ones. Like when someone drops an apple and it gets brown in one spot and turns to mush."

"I love you, too, Richard." She replies sleepily, curling up in the covers, drifting off to sleep.

**X X X**

Kali steps in to the Bludhaven Police Department, a cup of strong coffee in her hand as she acknowledges her co-workers before heading for her "office", which is really just a morgue.

"Hey, Kali," Miranda Nelson matches her stride step-for-step and follows her.

"Can I help you, Miss Nelson?" Kali stops walking and speaks monotone to the young intern, getting a nice kick out of how the anxious strawberry-blonde stumbles over herself to come to a screeching halt before she runs in to Kali.

"Detective Grayson said that you were going to be busy today with-with uh, plenty to do and I take it that he meant plenty of bodies and I was wondering if I-if you, would allow me to-"

"Okay, Miranda, you do realize it is malpractice for me to allow you to cut open and sort through a body to investigate and diagnose causes of death without me present in the room, right?" Kali cuts her short, already guessing what she was going to ask her because she'd been asking her entire intern year while shadowing Kali to work without needing the supervision of her teacher.

"Well, I just-"

"You will learn plenty today, Miss Nelson, I assure you." Kali smiles sweetly to her, motioning for her to go ahead in to the room. Before Kali follows her, she catches Dick giving her a toothy grin and she steps to him with a raised brow.

"You choose one of my busy days to try to get my intern to beg me to violate the vow I took to this precinct, and to the state, to follow and respect the rules and regulations placed over my practice by allowing her to do an examination by herself even though she's not even three-fourths of the way through her intern year?" She hisses, not amused in the slightest and he smirks.

"Since when do you care about rules?" He asks her, raising his brows.

"Since when do you not?" She gawks, confused as to why he would even suggest an idea like that to her student to begin with.

"Kali, how is she gonna learn anything when you do all the examinations and all she does is stand over the table and watch?"

"Are you questioning my ability to teach, Richard?"

"I know you're able to teach, Kali." He states, the grin fading quickly. "But you need to act like it."

"Letting her cut a body open and figure out what happened, by herself, Richard, is malpractice. Even if I'm standing beside her the whole time, it's still a risk."

"Sometimes we have to take risks, Kali, and that's coming from me: the poster-child of rule keeping. Just supervise her and see what she can do and if she needs help or messes up, then you step in and teach her."

"She is not ready-"

"You won't know unless you see what she's got." He tells her, crossing his arms.

"That is the exact thing I said to you and Bruce when Jason wanted to track down his birth mother." Her voice is stern and sharp, cutting at Dick like a razor blade. "And we know how that ended so no, Richard. I don't take risks, anymore, and I sure as hell don't need you telling me when I need to."

She doesn't say another word to him before turning on her heel and going in to the exam room, slamming the door shut behind her, causing Miranda to jump suddenly.

Dick breathes out, his jaw tight as he turns his back to the recently slammed door, shaking his head a little.

"Trouble in paradise?" His partner, Matt Stevens, teases him after seeing the exchange of a heated argument and Kali storming off.

"There can't be trouble in a place that doesn't exist, Matt. If you pay attention to this case as much as you pay attention to Dr. Anders you might just help me solve it." He snaps and Matt chuckles.

"I would be offended but you're in enough trouble with Kali so I'll give you a reprieve. Dick."

"She'll get over it." Dick states. "That's not the first time we've argued and it's not the last time, either."

"When will you two just admit you're helplessly in love with one another and have hot make-up sex. Preferably letting me watch."

"For the last time, we're platonic. Strictly platonic. I dated her sister, she dated my brother-"

"The sister ditched you and the brother died, yeah, yeah. You've told me before but you've had to at least thought about it, right?"

Dick gives him a "shut up" look, and Matt puts his hands up in surrender.

"Got it. You only think nice things about the sexy doctor. Good, clean, holy, nice thoughts. Even when she's half naked in the bed with you. Good, clean, holy, nice th-"

"Why the hell am I re-examining Charlotte Hastings?" Kali interrupts them, plopping the dead woman's medical record on to Matt's desk, eyeing the two men.

"The GCPD wasn't satisfied with the first exam." Matt tells her hesitantly and she raises her brows, trying to keep from laughing.

"She died of toxic shock syndrome, I concluded that."

"Well, they said-"

"I know what they said." She mumbles, grabbing the phone from Dick's desk and dialing the Gotham City Police Department.

"Kali, you don't have to call them." Matt starts and she holds her hand up, shushing him.

"GCPD," The police captain answers the phone and Kali licks her teeth, trying to calm herself.

"This is Dr. Kali Anders from the Bludhaven Police Department and your request that I re-examine the body of Charlotte Hastings is being denied. She was raped multiple times, suffering minor injuries that didn't include internal bleeding or trauma to the brain and/or the heart. Aside from the vaginal tearing and ruined mental health, Charlotte Hastings was healthy after being rescued. It wasn't until after her rape kit that she got sick and died quickly because the kit was contaminated with Staphylococci bacteria. If questioning my diagnosis is your way of trying to save the ass of whichever one of your's administered the kit, then game on, Sir, because I can run circles around the morons that make up your entire precinct with my eyes closed all day, every day, any day. If any of you are stupid enough to question my judgement again, I will be more than happy to make a trip to Gotham with a blindfold and my running shoes." She snaps, hanging the phone up, and Richard and Matt look up at her from their seats.

"Down kitty." Matt says under his breath, trying not to chuckle and Kali grabs the file off of his desk. "You wanna take that temper out on doing some dirty things to me?"

"I'll kick your ass, Stevens." She promises him, walking back to the morgue.

"You're unbelievable." Dick tells Matt.

"What's unbelievable is how Kali Anders, one of the nicest people I know, just threatened a police department." Matt scoffs.

"Yeah, she gets a little more tense around this time of year." Dick replies, taking a swig of coffee and focusing in on his current case.

**X X X**

"Your stitching needs to be wider," Kali tells Miranda as the intern sews up the y-incision of the body laying on the table. After arguing with herself for several hours, Kali finally decided to follow Dick's advice and let Miranda do her first postmortem by herself, with Kali only supervising and offering helpful techniques when she saw fit.

When Miranda's done, she smiles widely, waiting for Kali to be done making sure she did a decent job. She finally gets the "not bad" she'd been hoping for, and squeals.

"Thank y-"

"Don't thank me." Kali interrupts her.

"Dr. Anders," Matt peeks his head in the door, looking at the two women. "Commissioner Jim Gordon is here requesting to see you."

"Why?" Kali asks, her face twisting in confusion.

"Probably because you said you could run circles around every moron at the GCPD . . . blindfolded."

"Oh, dear, tender egos hurt the worst." She states, rolling her eyes and walking to the door. Before she goes she looks at Miranda. "Thank the know-it-all detective when you can and get yourself cleaned up after you put Mr. Suduc away." She orders, stepping out.

"Commissioner Gordon," Kali greets the man where he's standing, speaking with Dick.

"You've pissed off quite a few of my officers, Doctor." He tells her and she loses her fake smile.

"Well I don't call them to go re-visit a crime scene when I think they've done a half-assed job so they have no right sending back a body I've already given the cause of death to because they think I'm wrong. Ms. Hastings should have been buried by now and instead she's locked up in my morgue because she was sent back to me."

"I wasn't aware she was returned here, and I didn't know your ability to do your job correctly was being questioned. Which is why I came down here to apologize when I found out. However," His tone gets a little more stern. "Calling my officers morons and stating you can 'run circles around them blindfolded' was a bit of a stretch, wasn't it?"

"I respect you, Sir. You have done a lot of good for Gotham and I appreciate you for that because I did live there at one point. But I don't sugar-coat shit. And I don't give gold-stars to people just because they participate and the majority of your department just participates while you, the few good ones, and the vigilantes, do the hard stuff. So, no. It wasn't a stretch. But I accept your apology. Tell Barbara I said 'hello'." Kali replies calmly, going back to work and Jim looks at Dick.

"She sure as hell knows when she's right, doesn't she?" He asks the detective and Dick scoffs, watching as she slips back in to the morgue.

"Yeah, she does."

"I forgot how much I like her." He states. "I like her a lot. We need more people like her in Gotham."

"Why're you here, Jim?" Dick changes the subject, knowing he came for more than just to apologize to Kali.

"Currently working on an investigation and I thought I'd let you know what-who-it's about. I was going to tell you and Kali both but she probably needs to hear it from you."

"Alright," Dick says, leading them to a empty room used for questioning, closing the door.

Jim lays the manila folder he's been holding on the table and slides it to Dick.

Richard opens the folder and sees it contains multiple pictures of a grave that seems to have been dug-up at first glance, the wood coffin busted open and the ground around the hole is shredded.

"What the hell is this?" He asks Gordon and Jim sighs, rubbing his chin.

"Jason Todd's body is M.I.A."

Shock rolls through Richard and he balls his fists up, his jaw tightening.

"For how long?" He asks, glancing at the pictures again.

"We aren't entirely sure. The way the ground has settled around it, it could've happened months ago."

"Months ago? Who the hell reported it? Does Bruce not visit often enough to have seen it sooner?"

"Harleen Quinzel reported it, actually. She apparently leaves flowers on his grave once a month."

"The girlfriend of the man who murdered him, visits his grave more than his own father does?" Dick has a hard time understanding the circumstances entirely and Gordon shakes his head slightly.

"Everyone copes differently, Dick. She feels slightly at fault for his death-"

"Well who's to say she didn't do it? Better yet her boyfriend?"

"We know she didn't do it because she completed a recovery program during her time at Arkham and she and the Joker aren't in contact anymore. He's been locked away for almost a year now with no escape, so his alibi is solid."

"Well then who did it, Jim?" Dick asks, raising his brows.

"I . . . " Jim starts, knowing what he wants to say, but not wanting Dick to think he's crazy for saying it. "How willing are you to be completely open minded about this?"

"I grew up a good part of my life in Gotham. Nothing surprises me at this point." He assures him, eager to hear what he's got to say.

"Look," Jim takes the clearest picture of the grave sight, his finger on the ragged edge of the ground that lines the grave. "If someone were to have dug him up, the dirt would've been all over the place or in a pile. But it's not. There's barely any."

"But the grave's open, the coffins busted-"

"I'm not saying he's there, but the way this is set up, the way this looks . . . "

"It looks like someone dug him out, instead of digging him up." Dick says what Jim's thinking.

"And we found this on the inside of the coffin." Another picture shows finger nails and blood smeared wood with scratches in it.

"That's blood." Dick states, narrowing his eyes.

"We're still getting a work up from forensics from the blood and nails, but if it confirms what I think it will, this whole case will need a lot more than science and straight fact to grow on." Jim explains.

"You think he somehow crawled out of his own grave . . . alive?" Dick's mind can barely imagine it happening, especially since they all saw Jason's beaten, charred body after the Joker got done with him.

"I think he crawled out of his own grave alive."


	2. to the grave

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richard finds out why Kaliand’r didn’t stay on Tamaran after she left in the aftermath of Jason’s death, a critical detail is revealed in the investigation of Jason Todd’s missing body, and an acquaintance from Kali’s past reminds her of a decision she made in a grey area that could backfire on her in the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jason will be in the next chapter, in flashbacks and present.

**II** **|** **to** **the** **grave**

 _Breaking_ _down_ , _let_ _the_ _words_ _fall_ _from_ _my_ _mouth_  
_All_ _the_ _things_ _I've_ _never_ _shown_ , _all_ _the_ _things_ _you'd_ _never_ _know_  
_Hear_ _me_ _out_ ' _cause_ _I_ _never_ _made_ _the_ _sound_  
_Couldn't_ _keep_ _it_ _locked_ _away_ , _couldn't take_ _it_ _to_ _the_ _grave_  
— _ **to**_ **the** ** _grave_** _by_ _Bea_ _Miller_ _featuring_ _Mike_ _Stud_

* * *

 

Richard stares worriedly at Kaliand'r, his brows pulled together and his jaw clenched so tightly together he'd crush his teeth if any more pressure were applied. The palms of his hands rub together and his elbows bare down on the tops if his knee caps as he leans forward from where he's seated on the couch beside her and tries to think of how to make the situation seem any clearer for Kali. He despises the feeling of not knowing what to say to console her, especially since she always spoke clearly and reasonably whenever he needed advice in the past because unlike her optimistic older sister, Kali's a realist, and always had something to say about everything even if Dick didn't want to hear it and he feels that she deserves some sort of explanation to help piece everything Jim Gordon revealed to them together. But he can't.

"Kali," He mumbles, his hand coming out to grab her's from the Vodka bottle it's anchored around. He sits the bottle on the coffee table and his hand returns to her's before he turns his body to face her. She doesn't look at him, her icey eyes staring off in to space across the room, as if a million thoughts are running through her head. Only one thought is, though:

 _Jason_ _is_ _not_ _alive_ _and_ _he_ _sure_ _as_ _hell_ _didn't_ _crawl_ _out_ _of_ _his_ _own_ _grave_.

"Kali-"

"He's not alive, Richard." She tells him harshly, looking at him with a glare, despite the tears that threaten to spill over her lashes. "Someone stole his body. He didn't just decide to come back to life and spring out of the ground like a weed."

Dick maintains his patience with her, nodding his head slowly, before telling her what he thinks.

"Kali, you saw those pictures. It just doesn't make sense for someone to dig him up, but have no evidence of him being dug up. And the scratch marks and blood on the inside of the casket and his nails-"

"It's not impossible for his body to have had spasms even though he was dead, Dick. It's like killing a snake but the nerves still cause the body to move and spasm despite it being dead. Humans can work the same way."

"His nerve spasms caused him to make scratch marks on his casket and caused his fingernails to tear off? Deep scratch marks that show signs of obvious struggle."

"His finger nails could've weakened from the rotting flesh they were attached to and fallen off themselves."

"The coffin was kicked out off, Kali. Someone didn't break in to it, the way it splintered is from exiting, not entering." He points out.

"I believe in Science, Richard, not miracles, and there is no way he's still alive. Even if he was alive, there is no way he managed to have enough strength to break out of a casket with pounds of dirt pressing it down being that he was beat nearly to death then left in a building with a bomb!" She barks, snatching her hand away from him and he grinds his teeth together, sighing heavily.

"You hate me right now for wanting to argue with you about this, don't you?" He asks her and she swallows the lump in her throat.

"I spent months telling myself him dying was a dream that I'd wake up from and I never did and now that I'm finally accepting it and I'm at peace with it, everyone's wanting me to believe after years of him being dead, that he miraculously survived a life-threatening beating, a time bomb, and being buried alive, even though he was dead when Bruce pulled him from the rubble. I don't hate you, Richard. I just wish you would see that this is impossible, and stop beating a horse that's already dead." She explains lowly, wiping the two tears streaming down her face, glancing at the clock. "You have patrol soon. You don't need to miss it."

"Kali-"

"I am fine. You didn't do your job at protecting this city when he first died because you had me on a highly unnecessary suicide watch and you wouldn't leave me alone and we're not having a repeat of it. You have an obligation to this city and you know it."

"I have an obligation to the people I care about as well, Kaliand'r." He argues sternly. "I'm not missing patrol tonight and I'm well aware of what all I failed to do when Jason died. I've been walking on egg shells all month to avoid being chewed out by you, or upsetting you but obviously anyone breathing the wrong way is enough to set you off so I might as well piss you off some more." He stands, his face hardening slightly as he looks down at her. "You're upset because in a couple of days it'll be seven years since he's been gone. Trust me, no one in our family is looking forward to it. Not me, not Bruce, not Alfred or Barbara, none of us. But the difference is that the four of us cope a lot better than you do. Around this time of year, always, you start to take your anger out on other people and it's not right, Kali."

"Oh, like Batman is rainbows and sunshine when he's taking his anger out-"

"On criminals!" He exclaims, and she stands to face him. "He fights criminals with his anger, he uses his rage to do good by the innocent people he protects and saves. You on the other hand, just about attack anyone who has the nerve to have a minor disagreement with you."

"Minor disagreement?" She hisses at him with her eyes cut. "Questioning my ability to do my job is a minor disagreement to you?! What if someone questioned your ability to be a good detective, Dick, better yet, questioned your ability to properly be Nightwing?"

"You're a great doctor, Kali!" He tells her, throwing his hands up with raised brows. "Most people know you are a great doctor so why the hell does it matter if a couple of pissed off police officers in another city question your judgement?"

"Because I am ordinary!" She shouts suddenly, tears coming like a flood down her face and confusion settles over her best friend's features as he tries to understand where her words are coming from. They both take a moment to calm down, and Kali wipes her tears before speaking. "When he died, and I found out and had my...incident, it drained everything from me. The power I possessed after the Psions experimented on me when I was younger, left me, and even the abilities I was born with were wilted and nearly gone, too."

"I remember it took you months of rest to even work up enough strength to be able to fly back to Tamaran because you wanted to get off of this planet and forget you were even here." He recalls lowly and she exhales before containing.

"But when I got home and faced my sister Komand'r, I..." More tears water in her eyes and Richard exhales softly, a saddened look on his face. "...She wanted me to return to my position as the leader of our people's militant forces and I couldn't. I tried but I couldn't because I no longer had the power that set Blackfire, Starfire and I apart from the rest of Tamaran, and I barely had the natural strength and agility our race was born with at that point." She tells him, licking her lips. "I thought my own sister was going to kill me. I was used to her wanting Kori dead, but she and I rarely ever had problems but I'll never forget the look on her face when she saw me trying to spar for the first time after my return. You would've thought I had tried to kill her with how disgusted she was." The sentence comes out in a chuckle, even though it's humorless. "I finally told her the truth. I told her what I did and why and she told me I no longer had a place in her kingdom's military and I was weaker than she'd ever thought I'd be for allowing my emotions for a human man to be so tightly knit to him that his death would cause me to exert all of my energy in to my grieving and do permanent damage to myself." She pauses for a couple of beats. "' _You_ _wanted_ _a_ _simple_ , _moronic_ , _life_ _when_ _you_ _went_ _to_ _Earth,_ _Sister_ , _and_ _now_ _you_ _have_ _one_. _Congratulations_ , _you're_ _just_ _as_ _emotionally_ _crippled_ _as_ _a_ _human_. _You_ _are_ _ordinary_.'" She quotes her older sister, her voice shaking as her eyes stay fixed in to space.

"That's why you came back," Richard says softly, finally understanding her coming back to Earth.

"That's why I came back."

"You could've told us, Kali," He extends his hand to her cheek, his thumb circling the soft skin.

"There's nothing any of you could've done and it would've added more burden to Bruce." She explains with a shake of her head, her hand grabbing his wrist softly to pull it away from her face.

"You could've at least told me," He says next, his eyes searching hers. "I knew something was off when you stopped shooting blue beams out of your fingers and throwing me around like a children's toy when we spar. I just thought maybe you reconnected with your people so strongly that their relatively peaceful idealologies finally rubbed off on you." His words cause Kali to laugh a little and he gives her a small smile.

"I'm ordinary, Richard." She says, sniffling. "I'm basically human. And not the kind that puts on a suit and fights criminals. I'm the kind that has no extracuriculars outside of her normal job. So, I can't afford to be questioned by anyone when it comes to how capable I am of my responsibilities as a doctor. I need to be as extraordinary in human terms as I can be. That's why I snap when anyone questions my work because I'm already as good as dust on my planet. I refuse to be as good as dust here, too."

Richard steps closer to her, opening his mouth to speak, but the ringing of his phone cuts him short.

He closes his eyes for a moment, Kali taking a step back from him so he can answer his phone with a decent amount of privacy.

"Hey," Dick answers after reading Barbara Gordon's name on his phone.

"You need to get to Gotham." She tells him with no explanation and he furrows his brows, eyeing Kaliand'r who's picked the whiskey bottle back up from the coffee table.

"Uh, explanation, Babs?" He asks, taking the bottle from Kali and taking it back to the cabinet. The Tamaranean just rolls her eyes.

The red headed woman exhales, glancing around her to make sure her father wasn't home yet.

"We've found some things the GCPD might've missed." She explains.

Richard continues looking at Kali as she plops back down on the couch and rubs her forehead.

"I'm with Kali, right now, Barbara. And I promise she doesn't want to go to Gotham and talk about anything." He replies, stepping to his room so Kali doesn't hear him.

"No, she's gonna wanna see this, too." She assures him and he sighs.

"I've already tried talking to her about the possibility of him being alive and she got really—"

"What was found let's us know him being alive isn't a possibility, Dick. It's a fact." She tells him and he clenches and unclenches his jaw for a moment.

 **X** **X** **X**

"I don't even know what to say to them, Richard, I haven't seen them in two years." Kali complains to Dick as they arrive at Wayne manor.

"Just blame how busy work is. That's always a decent excuse for not contacting people more often." He shrugs, taking the key from his car and getting out.

She follows, crossing her arms in Dick's over sized sweatshirt she stole from him.

They stand outside the door, ringing the doorbell, and Alfred swings the door open with an elegant smile that Kali always adored.

"Master Grayson." He greets Dick, his eyes going to Kali and he keeps the same expression. "Miss Anders."

"Hey, Alfred," Dick smiles widely, hugging his old butler quickly, and Kali also gives a smile.

"Hi." She says shortly to the British man, following Dick as he steps past him and in to his previous home.

"Master Wayne and Miss Gordon are downstairs, Sir." Alfred informs them.

"Thank you." Dick replies, his hand grasping Kali's as he leads her to the hidden staircase that gets to the Batcave.

"Missed this place." He sighs out, stepping in to the heavily equipped hideout, seeing Barbara, Tim and Bruce at the same computer.

The three turn around, seeing Dick for the first time in several months, and seemingly being dragged behind him is Kaliand'r, who they haven't seen in years.

"Just like old times," Barbara says, looking at her. "All of us together."

"Yeah, except one of us is a replacement, one's paralyzed and four out of five of us are completely delusional, Barbara." Kali shoots down her light-hearted comment and Dick squeezes her hand in his, a silent command that she needs to stop trying to start trouble but the Tamaranean glares at him and takes her hand out of his.

"What is she doing here?" Tim asks Richard without caring if Kali hears or not.

"I have more right to be here than you, Mr. Replacement." She snaps at him and he scoffs.

"I didn't want to leave her by herself." Dick explains and Kali rolls her eyes.

"He's afraid I'll try to kill myself." She corrects him flatly.

"I am not." He argues with raised brows. "I just don't think you should be alone right now."

"Oh, right, because my beaten bloody and blown to hell boyfriend is alive after all." She pipes sarcastically and he glares at her.

"We know it sounds bizarre." Bruce cuts in, finally looking Kali in the eyes. "But none of us would even be proposing the possibility if we didn't have enough evidence to back it up and regardless of your skepticism, we're still going to investigate this as closely as possible. You don't have to help us, but it'd make things easier if you would at least keep your snide comments to yourself as much as possible."

Kali rubs her lips together, and gives up, walking to the three of them with Dick on her heels.

"What other evidence have you found?" She asks them, trying not to let her voice crack.

"A couple of years ago, a John Doe was brought in to Gotham General and was hooked up to a ventilator. He was unconscious for about year until he woke up and was claimed by his 'wife' and was discharged." Tim tells them.

"It was a long shot but I asked a couple of the nurses on his case what his wife looked like and the description they gave me," Barbara talks next while Tim makes a few clicks on the computer and turns the monitor to them. A beautiful woman with dark, full hair and tanned skin appears, and Kali furrows her brows. "She matches the description of Talia al Ghul perfectly." Barbara points out.

"What the hell would Talia want with Jason?" Dick asks, his mind racing with utter curiosity.

"We haven't exactly got to that part yet." Barbara tells them. "But Tim managed to hack in to the hospitals data base and the John Doe brought in is 6 foot even, about 225 pounds, blue eyes, black hair, and around the age Jason would have been two years ago."

Kali and Dick look at each other, possibly thinking the same thing. Kali refuses to believe he's alive, but the evidence is saying otherwise.

"Well, Timothy, you're good for more than trying to be at least half as good as the boy wonder before you, after all." Kali tells him and he gives her an unamused look. "So no one's visited his grave in two years?" She asks next and everyone seems to be fascinated with anywhere but looking at her as she speaks to them.

"There's been so much happening here, Kali." Barbara says calmly. "It sounds horrible but none of us had the time."

"And no one reported a dug up grave sooner?" She asks next and Bruce exhales.

"Gordon said the first complaint they heard about it was from Harley." He states.

"Where's she staying?" Kali asks them and the the four of them look at her.

"Kali, it might not be the best to—"

"I did her a huge favor regarding her ex-lover, not too long ago, that I recall catching a lot of hell from people all over this city for. The least she can do is give me solid answers. Not the bullshit she probably fed to the GCPD." Kali says sternly and Bruce gives Richard a look before the first Robin sighs out in surrender.

"Uptown." Dick says to her. "The apartments a few blocks away from the Bridge that goes to Metropolis. Apartment building 4, apartment 310."

"Okay, I'm going." She tells them and nods, turning to leave when Dick grabs her wrist.

"I'll go with you," He says.

"You have a city to go babysit." She argues with a raised brow, looking past his shoulder to Bruce and Barbara. "You all do. I'm perfectly capable of getting what I need with out supervision."

Richard gives her a look she hates getting from him. The "let me help you" look. It was her weakness, right next to the "let me take care of you" look he pulled off so well.

"I'll see you later tonight." She assures him, softening her features to give him a small smile, stepping forward to cup his face in her hands, tugging his lips upwards with her thumbs to make him smile, even though it was a sad attempt due to him only giving her stern look. She drops her thumbs from the corners of his mouth. "I love you." She tells him. "I'll call you if I need you and I'll be careful."

"You swear?" He asks her in a serious tone and she nods.

"I swear."

"Kali—"

"I promise, Richard." She repeats, her smile not faltering and he gives up and smiles a little, as well.

"I'll see you you later tonight, then." He replies.

"Yes, you will." She nods and he hands her his car keys, causing her to furrow her brows a little.

"I'll borrow one from Bruce." He explains, looking over his shoulder to the older man. "If it's okay."

"It's fine." Bruce gives him permission, not entirely thrilled about Kaliand'r going after Harley without someone with her.

She wasn't always the best humanitarian when it came to getting critical questions answered...but perhaps her lack of power will come with a lack of anger while facing the clown's ex-girlfriend.

"Bye." Kali says to them as she turns on her heel with Dick's keys in her hand.

"Love you," Richard tells her just as she's in the entrance of the cave and she gives him a warm smile.

"I will see you later tonight." Is all she says before heading back upstairs.

A quiet falls over the four of them and Richard turns to look at Barbara, Bruce and Tim.

"Talia has access to the Lazarus Pit." Bruce tells Richard once Kali's out of earshot, and Dick's smile falls from his face.

"He's alive." Dick says in an almost whisper, bile rising in his throat, and he has to keep himself steady. Bruce nods, a solemn expression on his face.

"He's alive."

 **X** **X** **X**

Kali makes her way to apartment 310 after her arrival, knocking on the door.

The place where the apartment building is located seems like a decently safe part of the city, a long shot away from how dangerous and hellacious downtown is but Kali still keeps her guard up.

The door swings open, revealing a beautiful Harleen Quinzel. Her blue eyes shine and her smile is wide as she recognizes Kali almost immediately.

"Doctor Anders," She says politely. "Can I help you with something?"

"I have questions regarding Jason's missing body." Kali tells her and the smile falls from the blonde's face.

"Do you have a warrant?" She asks daringly and Kali raises her brow.

"Whipple." Kali says in a hiss and Harleen cuts her eyes at her for a moment before stepping aside.

"Fine." She sighs, motioning for Kali to come in.

"Well, where should we start?" Harleen asks as Kali looks around.

The apartments a decent size, but mostly spacious due to it being emptier than one would think it should be. She takes mental note of this and turns back to face Harleen.

"Where were you when he was doing it?" Kali blurts unapologetically, no explanation needed as Harleen takes in a heavy breath and steps to her cupboard.

"Start with the heavy stuff, then." She chuckles out nervously, pulling a bottle of wine out of the cabinet and setting it on the counter before grabbing two glasses.

"I don't tip-toe." Kali tells her and Harleen nods.

"I can tell. Wine?" She offers a filled glass and Kali shakes her head. Harleen shrugs slightly and takes a sip of the dark liquid, trying to put her thoughts together before speaking: "We has gotten in to an argument over something and weren't necessarily on speaking terms. I left to go stay with my friend Pamela and when I came back home a couple days later he was gone. The next thing I know the Bat's dragging him to Arkham and the murder of Jason Todd is plastered all over every news station, radio station, and paper. So I suppose I was in Gotham when he was doing it."

Kali nods, studying the woman's face for signs of lying the way Richard and Bruce has taught her. In their words, "everyone's got a subconscious telltale."

Harleen wasn't showing one, so Kali accepts her answer.

"What about you?" The question's turned back on Kali, and she snaps her head back up to look at her, trying to see if she really just asked that. "Where were you while he was doing it?" The woman repeats and Kali curls her fingers in to her palm and licks her lips.

"The outskirts of Central City." She responds and Harleen nods silently, rubbing her lips together while looking down at her black sweat pants.

"What did you say to him?" Kali asks lowly and Harleen squeezes her eyes shut a moment, drinking some more wine.

"I wasn't happy with him but that I loved him anyway and we would try to work things out when he got out of Arkham." She admits.

"Jason was only nineteen. He was a kid. He killed a kid and you still entertained the idea of staying with him?" Kali's tone is an accusation and Harleen furrows her brows.

"I was sick and dependent on a man that was sick. We were both sick. What the hell else was I going to do? Leave him? Because I would've rather someone put a gun to my head than ever be without him back then."

"So what changed?"

"A couple of years ago he was diagnosed with cancer while he was staying at Arkham. He escaped, and came home. He tried to hide it from me but I found out eventually. He found it amusing that he was dying and I didn't. So I turned us both in to the police because he couldn't go get fixed by hiding out. When he got to Arkham they did some more tests and scans and found out the cancer had spread to a few other parts of his organs and he needed a pancreaticoduodenectomy. A Whipple surgery. Doctor Arkham called in the best surgeon he knew to perform the surgery. Little did I know the doctor he called in happened to be the girlfriend of the kid J had killed five years earlier. She told me the only way she would perform the surgery and save his life, was if I left him and got better. I told her I would so she put her bias aside and honored the oath she took as a medical physician and did the surgery that saved him." She states knowingly, not breaking eye contact with Kali. "That's what changed."


End file.
